And I wish reality weren't so harsh. If we could actually cure a murderer of the mental illness that made him dangerous that would be the most ideal solution. Then he could be reintegrated into society as a productive citizen. The problem is, we don't have the medical or psychiatric knowledge to accomplish that.

One way or another society needs to be protected from dangerous individuals. That leaves us only two choices, as I mentioned above: Warehousing or execution. I'm not sure warehousing is so humane either. Which results in the greater suffering, a lethal injection or a lifetime in a cage?

It is likely that anyone who is capable of premeditated murder of a complete stranger must be suffering from his own horrible internal demons. I'm sure such an individual is wracked with constant emotional pain of one sort or another. Is it really that compassionate to force him to suffer that torment for the rest of his life?

Depending on one's religious beliefs, there are different things awaiting him in the afterlife. If you are a Christian then God will have the final revenge by burning him in hell for eternity, which is much more inhumane than anything we mere humans can do. Some religions believe that everyone goes to heaven, and that in the afterlife he will learn the error of his ways and be saved. Others believe in reincarnation, and that he will be reborn and given a second chance to get it right next time. Others believe there is nothing but complete extinction. In every myth (except the angry vengeance-seeking Christian hell myth) death is the better alternative for him.

One of his lawyers was being interviewed on BBC last night and said that three areas of his brain showed unmistakable legions consistent with schizophrenia. Also there is an actual hole in another part apparently from physical abuse he suffered as a youth.

to kill people there. I remember the cheering and celebrations as glorifing of the troops as they went off to war. His wife said he was a very different man when he returned. Some killing we cheer for, maybe he thought it was okay, after all no one told him it was wrong to kill Iraqis.

And those who sent him there are living in luxury, respected and when they die, will have state funerals. I wonder how the families of dead Iraqis feel about all this.

13. You're hiding behind a stipulation, that just because the law is on the books, that makes it alright

It's alright that the state can capriciously choose whom it wants to kill and doesn't kill.

All without regard to the greater moral implications of the death penalty, its politically charged application, the unfair way that states throw millions of dollars against defendants to make a specious claim that the death penalty is a deterrent, (Yes, a waste of money and the real possibility that innocent people can and have been executed.

About that deterrent thing, why doesn't anyone ever admit that every single subsequent execution is a tacit admission that all previous executions were complete failures as deterrents? All one has to do is ask, what is gained by that lie? Other than another notch on some prosecutor's bedpost...

What about the hypocrisy of the death penalty itself? That taking a life is so egregious that it creates justification that state can (again) capriciously decide that it also can take a life in return? If that's not revenge, then what is it?

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, it's been said.

States make the choice to kill deliberately. I call deliberate a killing murder.

I'm an old school liberal in the belief that the justice system works only when it is designed to be corrective rather than punitive in its precepts. We have literally thousands of years of history to guide us on this and there are no indications that we are doing the right thing no matter what level of emotional satisfaction it brings to certain folk.

By the time you add factors like sin crimes and prisons for profit and it would seem like alarms would be sounding 24/7 that we need to quickly reevaluate our entire thought process. Doubly so as it becomes clearer all the time that we punish the innocent with and sometimes instead of the guilty.

People like structure and for things to make sense so it is very hard to digest that what we think of as facts are just guesses that work within limited observation. Yesterday's reasonable or even beyond a shadow of a doubt are in some cases today's utter bullshit like the case in Texas.

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